ANAMIZU, Japan: Seeking food, company and a safe roof over their heads, people from all walks of life were sheltering at community halls after a major earthquake levelled their homes in central Japan. At one hall in the town of Anamizu, residents huddled together on makeshift beds made of cardboard boxes, warming themselves by stoves and rehashing the New Year’s Day catastrophe that killed at least 73 people and left tens of thousands without power or running water.

"I want to go back home soon, but I have no idea what the road situation is now, and neither do people who manage the facility here,” said Nobuo Takahata, 68, who was visiting from the neighboring region of Toyama when the quake hit. Takahata was with his family, having weathered a harrowing night in their car before arriving at the shelter.

But others were by themselves, gazing ruefully out windows or perusing local newspapers featuring giant pictures of collapsed buildings and raging fires. A whiteboard detailed what rationed items were available, including water, powdered milk, onigiri rice balls, blankets and women’s sanitary products. Soup, with a warning for those with food allergies, was also available, as were steamed buns for locals braving the cold in long queues outside.

‘The big one’

Takahata was driving when the quake began. "The first shake was rather small so I pulled over. After a short while, I began driving again when the big one hit,” he told AFP. He was able to safely stop the car, but the road was split open by the quake. "If I had been less lucky, I could’ve fallen into that hole in the road and died,” he said.

Unable to return home, he had to spend the first night after the disaster in a car with his pregnant wife and daughter, turning the engine on and off to keep warm. Since they were visiting from out of town, they had no supplies and had to share a single bottle of water between them.

We "took sips of it together to survive”, he said, adding that running the heater in the car for warmth made them thirsty. At another shelter in the city of Nanao, 75-year-old Yoko Demura explained that her home had been reduced to rubble. "I can never go back there. It’s unlivable now. It makes me sad and I will miss it. I never expected to lose our home like this, but there is nothing we can do,” she said.

Roads blocked

All around the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast, buildings have been flattened and roads hit by landslides and fallen trees. Cellphone coverage was patchy. In the city of Wajima, a huge fire laid waste to several hundred structures and a seven-storey building toppled over.

In Suzu, tsunami waves spilled fishing boats on the shore. Heavy rain pounded the region on Wednesday, making conditions more treacherous and raising the risk of additional landslides even as aftershocks continued. Sirens blared as emergency vehicles tried to get to those in need.

"My house itself didn’t crumble down, but inside, everything fell over. It’s a mess,” Yuko Okuda, 30, told AFP at another shelter in Anamizu that in normal times is a municipal office. "The cold and the lack of food are my biggest concerns now,” Okuda said, adding that her four-year-old son was allergic to eggs so could not eat the food rations provided. "So he’s basically subsisting on snacks we had brought from home. "Of course I eventually hope to return to our home but for now, what I want is to make my life here just a bit more livable.”

There were "almost no houses standing” in one town in the Suzu area, said municipal mayor Masuhiro Izumiya. "About 90 percent of the houses (in that town) are completely or almost completely destroyed ... the situation is really catastrophic,” he said, according to broadcaster TBS.

The regional government confirmed 73 people are dead and nearly 400 injured, but the toll is expected to rise. More than 33,400 people were in shelters, and at least 200 buildings had collapsed. Around 30,000 households were still without power in Ishikawa prefecture, the local utility said, and over 110,000 households left without running water.

"Our lifelines have been cut off,” said Yuko Okuda, 30, from an evacuation center in Anamizu. "Electricity, water and gas — everything. And as aftershocks keep happening, our house could collapse at any time,” she told AFP. — AFP